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Swift Parrot and Regent Honeyeater Surveys

The Swift Parrot and Regent Honeyeater survey weekends for 2017 are on May 20th and 21st and August 5th and 6th. We will be looking for volunteers to survey both species across Victoria, NSW, ACT and Queensland, it would be great to have you on board!

We are looking for volunteers to search for these birds across Victoria, NSW, ACT and Queensland, as Swift Parrots make their way up to the mainland from Tasmania and Regent Honeyeaters move about the landscape in search of flowering Eucalypt trees to feed on. As always, if you cannot do a survey on the weekend, we are happy for people to get out a week either side of this weekend, and as usual incidental sightings are also welcomed.

The aim of these surveys is to determine the distribution, habitat use and population trends of the Critically Endangered Swift Parrot and Regent Honeyeater. This information is used to help better manage the habitat for both species and identify important foraging areas. These surveys have been occurring for many years now and this is a continuation of an important long-term process to monitor these very rare birds.

We have attached a copy of the survey form (word and PDF versions) and a list of suggested survey locations for NSW, ACT, Victoria and Queensland. All of these documents can also be found on our website. The Word version of the survey form can be filled out electronically and emailed to us or alternatively the survey forms can be printed out and faxed (03 9347 9323) or scanned and emailed back to us. Please let us know where you plan to survey so we can track survey effort.

We generally ask volunteers to survey an area for approx 20 minutes (walking slowly along a walking track or through a park and observing birds). Any spot is fine for carrying out the survey (e.g. National Parks, conservation reserves, private property), but both species do prefer areas which contain flowering eucalypts for foraging or areas of heavy lerp and insect loads. You can also contact one of the Woodland Birds for Biodiversity team and we can put you in touch with a local coordinator to help find suitable survey locations and to get site specific maps. (Please contact Julie Morgan on the South Coast of NSW) We have recently generated maps of some of our suggested survey locations, particularly for larger sites such as National Parks, to help narrow the search. Sites which have been mapped are noted in the survey locations spreadsheet. Please also let us know if you would like more information about non-mapped sites.

We also encourage volunteers to submit data on other woodland bird species recorded to the BirdLife Australia Atlas (i.e. this can be done whilst looking for Regent Honeyeaters and Swift Parrots).

If you wish to participate in the upcoming May 2017 survey or would like to report sightings of either species, please contact one of the members of BirdLife Australia's Woodland Birds for Biodiversity team: Dean Ingwersen (Victoria, Regent Honeyeaters), Caroline Wilson (Victoria, Swift Parrots) or Mick Roderick (NSW, ACT & QLD, Swift Parrots at woodlandbirds@birdlife.org.au